Chapter 17
It was all coming to an end.
In fact, a month had nearly flown by and yet, he had an arrangement with his father. Only one month, and then he leaves. Besides, there was nothing to learn there, but he kept his parents informed of everything.
It was strange thought. Lucy and her friend spoke often of Ryomen Sukuna, not always in a bad way either. When he would tell his parents at dinner, he aways saw his mother shoot a look to father. There was even kicking involved near the end of the month, but that's besides the point.
In the last week of school, Ryoto informed his new friends that he was leaving, so they wanted to celebrate their friendship. "You know that abandoned pool at the back of the school? Meet us there after the final bell." Lucy insisted.
He was taken aback but agreed, no student has ever gone to that section of the school, perhaps it was a secret hang out or something?
#
The final bell went off.
Ryoto texted his mother that he would be a little late coming home, but will be back soon enough. Then he went to the pool. The place was blocked off rather well, the doors were nailed shut by the looks of it, yet if one merely pushes the doors, they open. The wooden boards were sealed to the frame and not the door itself. With a little finesse and compromise, Ryoto managed to squeeze himself through and enter the pool.
The place… has seen better days.
The pool itself was revolting, but the splatters on the wall didn't exactly add to the décor. Looking in, he found the pool was full of black sludge. "Looks like it needs to be cleaned…" he muttered, yet as he stared at it, he felt it was something far worst than what he assumed. "This is curse isn't it?"
"Indeed it is!"
Ryoto turned and saw Lucy smiling. She peered into the pool and her grin only grew bigger. "This here has been maintaining by our families for a while, we had to learn this method and it took YEARS to perfect."
"But. What is it?" he asked bluntly.
Lucy… smiled oddly.
Ryoto was about to ask her, when he was suddenly caught from behind. His arms were tied to his sides as were his feet and then, he was gagged! They tripped him, so he would be trapped on the floor. Leon, Adam, Joe and Morris jumped onto his back and pinned him then and there!
The ropes were talismans!
Lucy, went to the pool and peered in once more. "We have been looking for a new vessel for the master, how fortunate for us that YOU came along!"
Ryoto struggled, but found the bindings were cursed too. They sapped his energy! He glared at Lucy who nodded to the others. "Bring him to the edge, the sooner we get him in the bath the better."
'Bath?!' Ryoto thought.
She leaned down, until she was lying on the ground before him. "So long, we have searched for a better vessel for our master. After that incident with Kenjaku, we figured we would take matters into our own hands… and bring back Ryomen Sukuna to his former glory!" she said proudly. "And you…" she said and gently booped his nose. "Are the perfect body frame for him…"
'They… are going to use me as a vessel?! HELL NO!' Ryoto thought. He tried to struggle out of his binds, a few times he managed to lift himself but not much more.
"He's a lively one!" laughed Joe.
"Indeed…" Lucy smiled as she went to retrieve something, it was a bloody robe with a powerful residual energy on it. "This belonged to the master, there's enough energy in here to use in the bath, and that energy… will make its way to you… corrupting you and allowing Ryomen Sukuna to take control!" he watched in horror as it was tossed into the black sludge… it was devoured and made it come alive!
"Throw him in," she ordered.
Ryoto couldn't resist, the seal on the ropes prevented him from using his curse energy, he somehow felt weak very suddenly as his body slowly dragged towards the pool. He tried to resist, squirm, whatever he could do! But he felt his body slip. Black sludge began to climb on to his flesh before it couldn't wait anymore… he felt as if a hand grabbed him and dragged him into the depths of the pool…
#
They watched on.
The sludge they have been gathering has been an effort carried out by their parents when they were freshmen, the painstaking task of learning how to find the best curse spirits for the bath and how to extract the necessary components to bring out what was needed.
Thank goodness they found the cookbook!
"I still can't believe this took years to do, just years upon years!" Joe said and smirked.
"Our parents were doing this when they went to school, but it was so little, only now has it finally been filled and now used!" said Nikkei.
Their leader, the blond young woman named Lucy, kept staring. The black sludge has been bubbling for a few minutes until… it stopped.
Her smile grew at the sight. "It won't be long, but to find someone so naïve. It's a good thing he didn't have friends here, they would have warned him!" she snickered.
"Yeah, the lonely loser," they laughed.
But then, something was off.
"Hey… what's that?" Morris muttered.
They began to peer about, the pressure of the room suddenly changed but then, their eyes peered at the sludge that went very still before trembling! "Is that… quivering?"
The pressure grew, again and again until it felt the air was too thick to breath! The walls started to rumble and crack. Until…
CRASH!
Something had plunged down through the roof and went right into the pool!
The sludge kicked up but went still once more.
"What the hell was…"
The pool… began to bubble once more… in fact, the sludge appeared to be trying to escape out of its confines!
The pool erupted!
Black sludge burst out, caught fire and then vanished into the air!
They managed to avoid being struck, but became nervous.
What… caused that?
Lucy was strong enough to stand, she wondered over and peered into the pool.
Her confusion only grew.
Ryoto was still out cold and reduced to his boxer shorts, but within was a woman holding on to him desperately!
"Ryoto? Ryoto are you okay?! Please, speak to me!"
The woman was strange, she gave off no curse energy and yet. There was something about her that chilled Lucy to her bones. Her red hair was not normal, her body frame too, but… why does this woman terrify her?
The red haired woman was oblivious to them, perhaps it would be best to strike her down now…
"Jeeze, sis, you always have to be ahead of us?!"
Lucy froze as she heard a new voice. Her companions had recovered only to see seven similar looking strangers appear!
"Who the hell are you!?" she demanded.
The one who spoke paused. "Oh? She didn't kill you? Wow, sis held back huh?"
"What do you mean…"
He suddenly peered into the pool. "Oh I see why she held back, he's hurt? Sis? Is Ryoto okay?!" he called.
The red haired girl peered up. "He's unconscious… but breathing…"
"Looks like nothing abnormal happened to him, good."
"Seriously, what the fuck is going on?" Leon whispered.
"They look like a Kamo," Lucy muttered back.
"Kamo? Oh Father's old clan!"
Father's… old clan?
The youth smiled. "You hear that sibs, they know dad's old clan!"
"So what?"
"Big deal!"
"I should care why?"
"Who the hell are you!" Lucy shouted.
They paused but smiled. "You can call me Doi." Their leader explained. "We're the sons of… well… he's known as Noritoshi Kamo to sorcerers. But that has since changed to Toshi Tatsuo. We're from the Tatsuo clan!"
"Never heard of you"
"Good, let's keep it that way…" their looks darkened. "You attack our big bro there… sis is really sweet on him, and quite frankly, it appears you went through a lot of trouble in making this… shit." He said bluntly. "But there's a problem, you aren't completely responsible for this either… how to go about this…"
He broke from his train of thoughts as the girl with red hair came out of the pool with Ryoto in her arms. She turned to him with tears in her eyes. "He won't wake up…" she wept.
He appeared devastated, but nodded. "Leave them for now. Let's get big bro home first."
As quickly as they appeared, they vanished without a trace.
Lucy and her legions froze. What on earth has the power to purify condensed curse energy like that?
"We have to inform the elders…" she whispered. "NOW!"